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Weekly Wellegant Find: “La La Land” (Movie)

This week’s Wellegant Find is a movie that I found absolutely enchanting, “La La Land” starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (and directed by Damien Chapelle). I will admit, I was a bit skeptical at first. Though I love Broadway musicals, I haven’t always loved movie musicals quite as much.

After the movie received seven Golden Globe nominations (and 6 wins!), I wanted to see for myself what all the hype was about.

I was interested in the theme of the movie – the negotiation between love and ambition – but was afraid that a musical might make the topic seem somewhat superficial and silly. I was so wrong!

The story revolves around Mia, an aspiring actress (played by Stone), and Sebastian, a jazz musician (played by Gosling) who fall in love as they attempt to make their dreams come true in the unforgiving LA world of entertainment. The two actors, who’ve now starred in four movies together, have great chemistry and the movie was far from silly. I found it to be thought provoking and, at times, heart breaking. It was also colorful, fun and a truly magical movie experience (kind of Woody Allen meets Gene Kelly). Not an easy feat, to be sure, but one that director, Damien Chazelle pulls off beautifully.

I saw it with a girlfriend and we spent the entire car ride home talking about the movie. By the end of our conversation, I loved the movie even more! I went home and promptly downloaded the movie soundtrack because, did I mention, the music was amazing?